


No Longer Robin

by SigiMario



Category: Teen Titans (Animated Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Amnesia, Dick Grayson is Red X, Gen, Manipulation, Mind Manipulation, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Temporary Amnesia, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-13
Updated: 2021-02-13
Packaged: 2021-03-13 02:28:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,822
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29394801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SigiMario/pseuds/SigiMario
Summary: "You may not remember me," the man said, "or even yourself, but your bedside manners haven't changed at all. I am Slade. I am your mentor. You are Red X. You are my apprentice. We recently joined forces to defeat the Teen Titans."-Red X wakes up in Slade's hideout. Slade takes him under his wing, but something feels off about their partnership. Red X just has to figure out what it is before it's too late.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	No Longer Robin

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first Teen Titans fic, and I gotta say they really don't give Slade a clear goal in this continuity. Even the wiki says "for some fucking reason, he wants to rule the world??? I think???"
> 
> Ok it doesn't say that EXACTLY but you get the picture. 
> 
> Anyway, I wrote this mostly out of boredom and I GOTTA warn you, updates will NOT be frequent. I'm supposed to be updating another fic but this came out instead. Ironically I was binge watching Young Justice when this idea came to me. 
> 
> Anyway, I hope you like this story and im excited to see where it goes.

The Boy opened his eyes slowly. His mouth was dry and his throat was tight. There was a pain in his head that seemed to thrum in response to his awakening. 

"Oh, you're awake. Good." 

The voice came from a man hidden in shadows. The Boy rolled over to get a clearer view as the man strode forward into the spotlight. It was coming from above, perfectly hitting the metal table the boy had been sleeping. 

The room that surrounded the two was cloaked in darkness, with the occasional glint of steel being one of the few things The Boy could make out. There were bright orange and copper glows that highlighted the undersides of the giant mechanical cogs clanging and whirring in the background. 

The man seemed to come from the very building itself, his entire body armored head to toe in grey and black metal, with the occasional orange accent that matched the left side of his mask. 

"Where am I?" The Boy asked. The man, despite his entire face being covered by an expressionless plate, seemed intrigued. 

"Are you being serious or was that an attempt at humor?" He asked. The Boy growled out a low note, suddenly hearing the haunting metallic echo coming from his own mask. 

"Where... am I?" The Boy's voice was heavily filtered, which, he realized, felt wrong. He reached to pry off the suffocating thing. 

"Wait!" The man leapt forward and wrenched The Boy's arm away from his mask. Instincts kicked in and The Boy brought his feet up against the man's chest and kicked him away, leaping into a back spring and landing on the opposite side of the table. 

"Don't touch me," The Boy spat out. "What's going on? Who are you, and where am I?" 

"You _are_ serious," The man grimly confirmed. "Very well. It appears you've lost your memory in battle. An evaluation must be done to determine the extent of the damage." 

"You haven't answered my question," The Boy pointed out. The man cleared his throat and nodded. 

"Right. You may not remember me," the man said, "or even yourself, but your bedside manners haven't changed at all. I am Slade. I am your mentor. You are Red X. You are my apprentice. We recently joined forces to defeat the Teen Titans." 

"Who are they?" 

The man (Slade, he supposed) sighed, but walked around the table and past Red X. He strode over to the large monitors on the other side of the room, beckoning Red X to follow. 

"Computer," Slade's low baritone sounded, "bring up the footage of Red X's last battle." The computer chimed in response and opened a video player with greyscale and grainy security footage playing. There were five teens battling Red X. 

One was a shape-shifter. Red X deduced he could turn into animals, given that he was a gorilla one moment, then a python the next. It seemed he was trying to contain Red X, but failing. X sent a flurry of shuriken to throw him off balance and, when he reverted to human, jabbed him in the throat to momentarily incapacitate him.

Another was obscured by a cloak, but it appeared that she was a girl. She was levitating objects and launching them at the Red X on screen, yet he managed to dodge the crates and pallets she was using as ammunition. At one point, he leapt onto the sturdier boxes and launched a binding device from the flat of his hands. The device was, unsurprisingly, shaped like an x and managed to secure the girls arms to her sides, breaking her focus and sending her careening downwards.

There was another girl as well. She was flying around, throwing bright bolts of energy towards her foe, but she seemed hesitant to unleash her full strength as her friends were in the line of fire. X used this hesitance and fired adhesive liquid in an attempt to pin her to a wall, or at the very least slow her down. 

There was also a half robot teen male, with one arm retracting into some sort of cannon. A few close calls, but Red X was still able to twist and flip away from the beams. In return, he sent two twin discs the cyborg's way, one on each elbow. They magnetized the metal arms and repelled them from the teen's body, accomplishing two things. He was left unable to fight and was forced to spread his arms wide open, exposing his chest to possible assault. 

Red X wasn't able to capitalize on his newest advantage, as he narrowly managed to avoided a side swipe from another teen male. Leading the team was a boy, roughly the same height as Red X. He had spiky black hair and an angled domino mask. He and Red X were the closest to a match. The two were trying to land a hit on each other, but as one drew nearer, the other dodged and gracefully avoided the blow. Their gadgets went one for one. Any shuriken Red X launched, the other would fire back with equal intensity. At one point X's foe dropped a small silver ball that expelled gas, but Red X saw his mask's eyes glow in what he assumed was some thermal vision.

Red X, in the video, was too focused on his newest opponent to realize that the shape-shifter had recovered from his mild stun. He ran towards X and then quickly changed into a ram and charged at him from behind. The ram's horns made contact with Red X's back and shot him into some pallets containing cinder blocks. Red X's form was hidden by the rubble. 

The cyborg managed to release himself from the magnetic repulsion and began to pry the bricks off of Red X, seemingly worried. Before he could finish, though, a net crackling with electricity flew in from offscreen. He began to writhe in pain and his inorganic body parts appeared to fail, leaving him stuck in place. 

Three more followed, hitting the changeling and the two girls. A fifth net flew in, but the boy in the domino mask dodged the capture device. He ran to assist his teammates, but they had mostly recovered by this time, choosing to retreat due to the cyborg's condition. 

As they left, a figure walked in from the side of the screen the nets came from. It was Slade. He pulled Red X from the rubble and hoisted him over his shoulders, walking him back offscreen. 

The video player closed, signaling the end of the footage. 

"It seems that your head was injured when you were buried in cement blocks. I took you back to our base. It's been two days. I've been monitoring your vitals and, for the most part, you've recovered well." 

Red X went to remove his helmet again, wanting to feel for bruising or lumps. Again, Slade stopped him, albeit gently now. 

"We haven't removed masks in front of each other yet. Our partnership is...new. We've only worked together a short while and you've yet to be comfortable enough to show me your face. I only want you to remove your helmet if you think it's the right thing to do. Granted, we do need to run some tests, but I wouldn't want you to do this recklessly. It has to be your choice."

That made sense, Red X supposed. He wanted to feel gratitude at Slade's compassion, but something in his gut squirmed at the mere thought of thinking of Slade fondly.

"Why are we fighting the Titans? What did they do to us?" 

Slade hummed. He clasped his hands behind his back and spoke once more to the computer. "Computer, bring up the map of Jump City." 

There was a chime in response and a holographic map of the city materialized in front of the two. Certain sections of the city duo. For the most part, the city was a bright white. Certain buildings were different colors, though. Off the coast of the city was a graphic labeled “Titans Tower”, a gaudy building shaped like the letter T. The building was a vibrant yellow as opposed to the white of the other buildings. Certain locations were red, others were green. There were even a few blue and pink sections. 

“Red depots are our targets, our missions. They either have resources or intel we need to complete our goals. Green are the ones we’ve completed. Blue areas are where we have allies, or people who owe us. The pink sections are safehouses, in case this base is compromised. Yellow is Titans Tower, obviously, home of the Titans.”

“What _is_ the mission? The endgame?” Red X asked. Slade nodded in approval. 

“The Titans have been a thorn in my side far too long. I have some… friends. We all have individual goals, some overlapping, but we run into the same issue over and over again. There are too many heroes, and furthermore, too many teams. The Justice League, The Titans, Birds of Prey, even the godforsaken Challengers of the Unknown. They've thwarted too many of our operations for far too long." Slade began to punch something into the keyboard as he spoke. The map zoomed out rapidly, becoming one of the continental United States, and Red X noticed something very interesting. 

"We have a lot of allies. There's as much blue as there is white." 

"Indeed. See, my endgame is to organize a sort of… Legion. A system of allies and teammates to overthrow the heroes. They began the game of teams. It's time we stepped up to the plate, don't you agree?" 

"It sounds good, but what happens when we win? Do you expect us to live peacefully with the others?" Red X asked. 

Slade shook his head. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend. I'm sure there's dozens of villains who want to take over the world, and there's conflict there for sure, but it would be much easier to settle amongst ourselves without the heroes interfering with our plans." 

Slade quickly wiped away the map and clasped his hands behind his back. He signaled X to follow him. They entered a smaller room off the main area. It was sterile and white and smelled of absolutely nothing, which was strangely jarring for Red X. It was an infirmary, complete with a biometric scanner.

"Now, I know you're physically alright, but I wish to do a full scan. You'd have to remove your mask, but I wouldn't do it without your permission." Slade grabbed the edges of Red X's helmet and paused, clearly waiting for some sign.

Red X felt uneasy, but understood why it was necessary. And he appreciated Slade waiting for approval. He slowly nodded his head, allowing Slade to remove the mask. 

"Oh, and one last thing," Slade said. "I'll have to shave your head for the scan."


End file.
